Publication Name

MINING FOR CLOSURE

Sweden, and the United States and that this trend

will undoubtedly continue.

Present-day attitudes to environmental protection

are increasingly represented in the development of

the concept of sustainable development, of “triple

bottom line accounting”, of cleaner production, of

life-cycle assessment to assess potential impacts, of

the precautionary principle, and of environmental

impact assessment to advise decision-makers and

the broader community on the potential negative as

well as positive outcomes of a proposed development.

All of these are relevant o the mining industry, and

extend from the pre-mine planning phase, through

construction, mining, and mine closure to post-mine

stewardship (Environment Australia, 2002b).

According to Sassoon (2000), integrated mine

planning – a term intended to capture the general

ethos of

“Mining for Closure”

means that to achieve

this:

... a mine closure plan should be an integral part of

a project life cycle and be designed to ensure that:

Future public health and safety are not com-

promised;

Environmental resources are not subject to

physical and chemical deterioration;

The after-use of the site is beneficial and sus-

tainable in the long term;

Any adverse socio-economic impacts are min-

imised; and

All socio-economic benefits are maximised.

and in Australia key minerals industry representa-

tive groups

hold that:

Mine rehabilitation is an ongoing programme

designed to restore the physical, chemical and bio-

logical quality or potential of air, land and water

regimes disturbed by mining to a state acceptable

to the regulators and to post-mining land users.

The objective of mine closure is to prevent or mini-

mise adverse long-term environmental impacts,

and to create a self-sustaining natural ecosystem

or alternate land use based on an agreed set of ob-

jectives (ANZMEC MCA, 2000, p. v)

However, it is clear from such instances as the 1985

Stava tailings dam failure in Trento, Italy where 268

people were killed, the tailings dam collapse at Los

Frailes in Spain in April 1998 and the Baia Mare

cyanide spill in Romania in January 2000,

that

mining activities still pose risks of significant en-

vironmental, social and economic harm. There is a

significant need for improvements in the standard

of the environmental protection policies, manage-

ment systems and technologies applied at many

mine sites. In many settings, it is the removal of

present and significant risk (and danger) that must

have an immediate and pressing priority. In seek-

ing to ameliorate or remove such risks however, the

broader objectives of longer term sustainability –

and

Mining for Closure

– as shall be discussed in this

26. In this instance, the author is principally referring to legislative

requirements for financial assurance for closure and reclamation.

27. Generally as posed by safety hazards such as unstable tailings

impoundments, toxic waters, unsafe buildings, equipment, open

holes, and so forth. However, it must be recognised that few (if

any) items in the built or natural environment are “hazard free”.

Thus, it is reasonable to expect that assume that in all countries

there should be transparent debate and agreement on the level

of acceptable risk pertinent environmental, social and economic

aspects of mines and mining facilities post-closure. Further, the

reader is referred to definitions of risk and hazard provided in the

glossary of terms for this document.

28. The terms applied here, as drawn fromEnvironmental Aspects

of Mine Closure produced by Sassoon (2000) and Mining for the

Future: Appendix B - Mine Closure Working Paper produced by

van Zyl, Sassoon, Fleury & Kyeyune (2002a) are generic but are

intended to bear with them the intent and limitations presented

in the source documents. Clearly the requirements for physical

and chemical stability of physical resources and achievement of

land use categories are not without bound. The reader is referred

to the source documents for such.

29. Australian and New Zealand Minerals and Energy Council

(ANZMEC) and the Australian Minerals Industry (represented by

the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA).

30. Note however, that the broadness of these positions are not

universally shared as the following comment from a South Afri-

can mining company representative demonstrates:

“From the min-

ing company’s point of view, the principal actions and liabilities associ-

ated with mine closure at present are: the retrenchment of employees

and the cost of associated severance packages as well as in some cases

mitigatory funds for the retraining of retrenched employees; the reha-

bilitation of the areas disturbed by mining and associated activities in

line with statutory obligations”

(Reichardt, 2002p, 2B-1).

31. To quote the European Commision (European Commission,

2003):

The collapse of heaps and dams can have a serious impact on

the environment and on human health and safety. The collapse of a

heap of inert waste from a coal mine at Aberfan in Wales in 1966 was

the worst ever such accident in the UK and caused the deaths of 144

people, mainly children. As for tailings dams, at world level these have

failed at an average of 1.7 per year over the past 30 years. At Stava,

Italy, in 1985, a fluorite tailings dam failed and released 200,000 m³ of

inert tailings, killing 268 people and destroying 62 buildings. At Aznal-

cóllar, Spain, in 1998, an accident in an area close to the Doñana

Natural Park in South Andalusia released into the River Guadiamar

2 million m³ of tailings and 4 million m³ of water contaminated by

heavy metals. At Baia Mare in Romania in 2000 a tailings pond burst

releasing approximately 100,000 m³ of waste water containing up to

120 tonnes of cyanide and heavy metals into the River Lapus; this then

travelled downstream into the Rivers Somes and Tisa into Hungary

before entering the Danube. In Baia Borsa, also in Romania, 20,000

tonnes of tailings were released into the River Novat, a tributary of the

Rivers Viseu and Tisa.

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